President Obama’s attempt to “soften” U.S. immigration enforcement — in what has been widely viewed as an election-year appeal to Hispanic voters — has so far produced mixed results on both practical and political fronts, according to a new Syracuse University report and anecdotal accounts from immigrant advocates.
In the last three months of 2011, following an administration decision to curtail deportations of illegal immigrants without criminal records and review all existing cases, the number of new deportations has dropped significantly.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiated just 39,331 deportation cases in October, November and December combined, compared with 58,639 in the three months before. That’s a 33 percent decline, according to an analysis by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University. The White House announced the policy change in August.
“Filings are typically lower at this time of year, but even adjusting for this seasonal drop-off and for late reporting, there appear to have been over 10,000 fewer deportation filings than would have been expected last quarter,” TRAC says, attributing the decline in part to the administration’s policy shift.
At the same time, researchers found “little evidence” that immigrants with criminal records are making up a higher overall proportion of those deported.